Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 115 U.S. 321
• 6 S. Ct. 57
• 29 L. Ed. 414
• 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1843

Syllabus

<p>A State statute for raising public revenue by the assessment and collection of taxes, which gives notice of the proposed assessment to an owner of property to be affected, by requiring him at a time named to present a statement of his property, with his estimate of its value, to a designated official charged with the duty of receiving the statement; which fixes time and place for public sessions of other officials, at which this statement and estimate are to be' considered, where the official valuation is to be made, and when, and where the party interested has the right to be present and to be heard ; and which affords him opportunity, in a suit at law for the collection of the tax, to judicially contest the validity of the proceeding, does not necessarily deprive him of his property without “due process of law,” within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.</p> <p>A State law for the valuation of property and the assessment of taxes thereon, ■ which provides for the classification of property subject to its provisions into different classes ; which makes for one class one set of provisions as to modes and methods of ascertaining the value, and as to right of appeal, and different provisions for another class as to those subjects ; but which provides for the impartial application of the same means and methods to all constituents of each class, so that the law shall operate equally and uni-formly on all persons in similar circumstances, denies to no.personaffected by it “ equal protection’of the laws,” within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.</p>